The Large Magellanic Cloud: expanding the low-mass parameter space of dark matter direct detection

Abstract We investigate how the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) impacts the predicted signals in near-future direct detection experiments for non-standard dark matter (DM) interactions, using the Auriga cosmological simulations. We extract the local DM distribution of a simulated Milky Way-like halo that has an LMC analogue and study the expected signals in DarkSide-20k, SBC, DARWIN/XLZD, SuperCDMS, NEWS-G, and DarkSPHERE considering DM-nucleon effective interactions, as well as inelastic DM scattering. We find that the LMC causes substantial shifts in direct detection exclusion limits towards smaller cross sections and DM masses for all non-relativistic effective field theory (NREFT) operators, with the impact being highly pronounced for velocity-dependent operators at low DM masses. For inelastic DM, where the DM particle up-scatters to a heavier state, the LMC shifts the direct detection exclusion limits towards larger DM mass splitting and smaller cross sections. Thus, we show that the LMC significantly expands the parameter space that can be probed by direct detection experiments towards smaller DM-nucleon cross sections for all NREFT operators and larger values of mass splitting for inelastic DM.